Anthropic plans investor meetings ahead of potential $1 trillion IPO

Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, is arranging investor meetings in the coming weeks as it prepares for an IPO that could value the company at roughly $1 trillion, people familiar with the matter said. The move sets up a high-stakes race with OpenAI, which is now targeting a 2027 listing after pushing back its earlier goal of an autumn 2026 debut.

"I was clearly wrong about Anthropic," Elon Musk wrote on X this month. "They are obviously currently the leader in AI. No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable." Musk's concession highlights the competitive dynamics — his own xAI runs Grok 4.5, released July 8, while Anthropic depends on 300 megawatts of compute leased from SpaceXAI under a $1.25 billion-a-month deal through May 2029.

Anthropic confidentially filed for a US IPO on June 1, according to Reuters, with lead underwriters now scheduling meetings with potential investors. The company was valued at $965 billion in its May Series H-1 round, above OpenAI's $852 billion private valuation. Anthropic's annualized revenue is estimated at $47 billion for 2026, roughly double OpenAI's projected revenue, according to a Forbes analysis. Both companies filed IPO prospectuses in June and are structured as public benefit corporations.

Whichever company goes public first is likely to shape the trajectory of the other. A strong Anthropic debut could lift the entire AI sector, while a weak reception might delay OpenAI's listing further. The IPO comes as enterprise customers push to cap AI subscription spending and the US government weighs export controls on advanced models — risks that could pressure pricing and margins for both companies.

Enterprise Focus vs. Mass Market

Anthropic's enterprise strategy sets it apart from OpenAI's consumer-driven approach. About 80 percent of Anthropic's revenue comes from enterprise clients, driven by Claude Code, its agentic coding product that fueled an 80-fold growth rate in the first quarter of 2026. OpenAI, by contrast, boasts more than 900 million weekly active users through ChatGPT but faces higher cash burn, reporting a loss of about $1.22 for every dollar earned recently, driven by research and development costs and cloud payments to Microsoft.

The two companies also differ in governance. Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust — an independent body of five financially disinterested trustees — has the legal power to prioritize AI safety over shareholder returns. OpenAI's foundation retains a 26 percent equity stake and controls the entire board. Both structures aim to balance profit with public benefit but create distinct risk profiles for investors.

Risks and Investor Pathways

Anthropic's $965 billion valuation requires continued growth and cost controls to justify. A significant risk lies in the balance of power between its two primary backers, Amazon and Google. Any conflict with the Trump administration — which imposed export controls on Anthropic's Mythos and Fable models in June before lifting them at month-end — could add volatility to the stock. For investors seeking pre-IPO exposure, the KraneShares Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF holds pre-IPO shares of Anthropic, while Microsoft, Amazon and Google offer proxy exposure through their cloud partnerships.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.